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Peter Cundall, AM (born 1 April 1927) is a horticulturalist, conservationist, author, broadcaster and television personality in Australia. He currently lives in Tasmania's Tamar Valley, and until the age of 81 continued to be a presenter of the ABC TV program ''Gardening Australia''. His last show aired on 26 July 2008. He will continue his radio show from Tasmania, his appearances at the Gardening Australia Expos and continue work on his autobiography. He was awarded a Membership of the Order of Australia in 2007 "For service to the environment, particularly the protection of wilderness areas in Tasmania, and to horticulture as a presenter of gardening programs on television and radio."〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=It's an Honour: Peter Cundall )〕 Cundall has become a household name to Australian gardeners. The TV show and magazine ''Gardening Australia'' Peter represents has a devoted audience of both younger and older gardeners and admirers. At ''Gardening Australia Live'' shows (gardening exhibitions in Australian capital cities) Peter Cundall's presentations attract many viewers. In a 2008 issue of ''Reader's Digest'', he came 8th in a poll of the 100 most trusted Australians.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Australia's Most Trusted People 2008 )〕 He is an environmentalist, pacifist and atheist. ==Early life and military service== Peter Cundall was born into an impoverished home, "the poorest of the poor", in Manchester, England on 1 April 1927, as the second of six children. Two of his brothers died when he was young. His father was an alcoholic and battered his mother. This put Cundall off alcohol forever. He was sent to a Catholic school, but never believed the dogma he was taught.〔 His Head Teacher called him a "steady lad who tries hard".〔 He left school at age 12, but straight away had a love for knowledge, books and reading.〔 He worked as a milk boy and a tram conductor. Near the end of World War II, Cundall joined the British Army's Parachute Regiment. He was stationed in various countries in post-war Europe in France, Austria, Germany, Italy and Yugoslavia and the Middle East in Egypt and the British Mandate for Palestine. During these travels he visited many private and public gardens and parks in order to add to his knowledge of plants and landscaping practices covering a wide range of climatic conditions.〔 He was also stationed at a liberated Concentration Camp and has said that the things he saw and heard had a deep impact on him.〔 In 1946, Cundall was stationed in southeast Austria at Sankt Paul im Lavanttal where he was guarding captured Nazi Waffen-SS troops. He was enticed across the border into Yugoslavia by a beautiful girl named Angela, and was arrested by Marshal Tito's forces after she disappeared. He was sentenced (without trial) to four years imprisonment for espionage, but was released into Trieste, Italy after six months in solitary confinement in a prison in Ljubljana, after pressure from the British government led to his release.〔 Eager to hasten his emigration to Australia, Cundall enlisted in the Australian Army in 1950, believing that he was enlisting for a non-combat role as a librarian. However, he was immediately posted to Korea with the Australian 3rd Battalion, and once again saw action overseas as a machine gunner during the Korean War. During a year and a half based in Japan he studied Japanese garden design and rock garden construction. He also gained access to many famous gardens and bonsai nurseries and regularly went to observe new gardens being created in Hiroshima, which was being rebuilt after the atomic bombing in 1945.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Peter Cundall」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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